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Ford was born in Petaluma, California, as the second son of an American father and a German mother; the couple divorced when Ford was ten-years-old. When Ford was only two-years-old, he fell off step and hit his head. On November, 1980, Ford was hit by a drunk driver, causing another head injury and drastically changing his personality, gaining murderous and violent impulses in the process, which resulted in him being instutionalized several times; he would later discover that he had a severe case of Borderline Personality Disorder. Ford was also arrested for beating prostitutes, animal cuelty and for raping a fifteen-year-old girl. Ford dropped out of high school and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving for six years and being honorably discharged in 1985. Ford then began driving delivery trucks for Sears and Wards but soon quit because the work was "beneath him", Ford subsequently became a tow truck driver. For unspecified reasons, Ford began calling himself "Adam". As a way to fulfill his misogynistic desires, Ford took advantage of his job and began serial killing.

On October 17, 1997, Ford picked up his first victim, only identified as Jane Doe, whom he raped, murdered and dismembered, keeping parts of her body in his van for cannibalism and necrophilia. Her torso was found days later by a duck hunter. Months later, he picked up and strangled his next victim, a Las Vegas prostitute named Tina Gibbs, her body was found a month later. His third victim was Lanett White, whom he picked up as she was going to a grocery store near an Ontario truck stop, her body was found in an irrigation canal days later. A month later, he picked up his next victim, Patricia Tamez. Following Tamez's murder, Ford began having suicidal thoughs and prayed more. On November 3, 1998, Ford told his older brother, Rodney, that he had "hurt people real bad". A day later, Ford walked into Humboldt County sheriff's station and took Tamez's severed breast, wrapped in plastic, out of his pocket, shocking the attendant, who arrested him. Ford was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where he currently resides on death row.

Ford initially targeted prostitutes, but later began murdering hitchhikers. He would rape and then stab or strangle them to death, mutilate their bodies and engage in cannibalistic and necrophilic acts with them. His first victim was so thoughly dismembered that she was unable to be identified.

Ford may have provided some inspiration to Season Five serial killer Wade Hatchett, as both were serial killers who worked as truckers, had the same victimology (Caucasian women aged in their twenties), and operated in several U.S. states due to their jobs.